Don Carlo, Royal Opera House review ★★★★★

Don Carlo is composer Giuseppe Verdi at his peak: a four-hour epic packed with fantastic tunes, intimate scenes and dramatic twists. And the revival of Nicholas Hytner’s 2008 Royal Opera production, which combines wide, sparsely furnished modern sets and period costumes in Bob Crowley's design, has stood the test of time.

Don Carlo caused Verdi endless grief after its premiere in Paris in 1867. He kept making changes, cutting acts, changing from Italian to French and shuffling arias. There is no definitive Final Cut, but since this Italian version was the last one he sanctioned, what we have here is, you could say, the Composer’s Cut.

It remains an enigmatic work, with a hero who is not terribly heroic, set in real events but treating historical facts very lightly and with a complex plot with a problematic ending. The best thing is to sit back and enjoy the ride, which is one of the best in opera.

This version retains the opening scene set in the forest of Fontainebleau near Paris, where Don Carlo, the son of the king of Spain, meets his intended, the daughter of the French king, and they fall in love. By the end of the scene it has all gone horribly wrong: Elisabetta is snatched from Carlo’s grasp as France and Spain sign a treaty, where part of the bargain gives Elisabetta to Carlo’s miserable father, and the scene is set for tragedy.

Visually striking is the scene outside the monastery in Act 2, where a row of poplars are silhouetted against a bank of poppies, while the king of Spain sings of the killing fields of Flanders.

The standard of singing is consistently high throughout the evening. Don Carlo himself can be a frustratingly self-indulgent prince, musing on love when he could be doing something more useful, but Brian Jagde’s assured performance and clean tenor voice endow this Carlo with a sense of self-respect. It’s only in Act 5, when he is still going on about the need for action that you realise that he is all mouth and no trousers.

Lise Davidsen, the powerful Norwegian soprano singing Elisabetta, displays a true-to-life agitation in Act 1 before she realises that the man in front of her is her betrothed. Davidsen’s voice grows in intensity as Elisabetta rises to become queen, soaring in Act 2 when she bids a tear-jerking farewell to her loyal lady-in-waiting. When you hear her voice rising above the massed chorus and the orchestra in Act 3 as she laments the arrest of Don Carlos, you know why this singer is so sought after.

Don Carlo’s friend, Rodrigo, is played by Luca Micheletti, a baritone with an elegant tone that pairs sweetly with Don Carlo in their duet pledging loyalty to each other in Act 2. He excels in the later scene with John Relyea, a growly, majestic Philip, the all-powerful king of Spain who finds himself powerless in the face of an unloving wife and an insubordinate son. In the famous scene in Act 4 Philip calls in the Grand Inquisitor, who totters slowly down the full length of the stage before delivering his damning verdict.

Taras Shtonda is just how you imagine the GrandInquisitor to be, with his hunched figure and shaking hands set against a proud conviction that rises in pitch in his mounting anger.

Mezzo-soprano Yulia Matochkina as Princess Eboli provides a perfect foil to the queen she betrays and then begs her forgiveness, while Alexander Köpeczi is magisterial as Carlos V, the monk who issues forth from the monastery.

The Royal Opera orchestra under Bertrand de Billy keep up an excellent pace to prevent it feeling like a marathon. Their playing is superb, bringing out the nuances of Verdi’s score with keening violins, pining woodwind and roaring brass.

Finally a special mention for Sarah Dufresne, a Jette Parker artist whose beautiful, clean soprano is the Voice of Heaven in Act 3 – a voice we are sure to hear more of on earth in the future.

This is one of the great operas, and if you haven’t heard it before, this is your big opportunity to get acquainted.

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Don Carlo is sung in Italian with English surtitles. Further performances are on 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 July